I'm not sure what drew me to Q*bert, maybe it's that the main character looks like characters I would doodle, maybe I was just overwhelmed and grabbed a ticket for a game I could reach, or maybe I felt bad that the main character was getting killed on the cover. Sadly, I wouldn't fare much better while playing the game.
The game takes place on an isometric colored pyramid. Each time Q*bert jumps on to a different step, the color changes. The goal is to color the entire pyramid a specific color. Unfortunately, there are a few enemies - a springy snake, gremlins that change step colors, and purple creatures that jump on the wrong sides of the pyramid. If you get trapped at the bottom, there are one time use spinning discs that will take you back up to the top of the pyramid. It was a fairly typical high scoring, never ending, super skill game. What makes the game a lot less fun than it could be is that the controls are super confusing. Since the pyramid is on diagonals, it doesn't match up to an NES control pad that well. It almost always cost at least one life to determine if down would go down left or down right or if up would go up left or up right. This is even worse when you're panicking from all the monsters after you and things bouncing around.
I know my brothers gave me a hard time for buying this game and I think it was only played like 5 times total at my house, so not exactly a game worthy of being the first game I ever bought, but it was a great lesson in researching your purchases before making them. I think that's a lesson that more people need to learn, especially before they get their hands on a credit card.
It was played more than 5 times. I tried it out off and on, because it was a good challenge. Granted I didn't try very hard.
ReplyDeleteI did solve the control-pad/diagonal problem though by turning the NES controller 45 degrees and using the control pad with both thumbs. That helped a lot.
Also, you weren't the only one who made crappy purchases. To wit: The Tick and Yo, Noid.
ReplyDeleteIf Yo Noid's platforming weren't so ridiculously difficult, it would be pretty awesome. The pizza mini-game was really interesting.
DeleteThe Tick would be better if it weren't so mind-numbingly boring...:)
Eric, I've never known you to express a political opinion in a blog before. Make it a habit.
ReplyDeleteI did?
DeleteIndeed. =>
Delete"...but it was a great lesson in researching your purchases before making them. I think that's a lesson that more people need to learn, especially before they get their hands on a credit card."
You've expressed the opinion that people should perform research before making purchases and the importance of doing so prior to obtaining a credit card, indicating a couple of things:
1. Being informed facilitates beneficial and advantageous decision-making
2. Uninformed individuals make poorer choices than informed individuals, insofar as those choices pertain to the use of a credit card.
Thus, as the limitations on your claim can only apply to video game purchases, you've identified a microcosm in which universal wisdom can and should be employed to yield maximum rewards. It retains the neutrality you so efficiently express in regards to matters of congress and state, but still acknowledges the existence of a segment of the gaming population that could be called 'candy gamers' in that they only engage the activity because of external expectations instead of a genuine interest.
In others words, it's common sense. Which I will be re-defining as not-so-common sense.
I didn't mean for that to be political so much as I'm still amazed that people have put themselves into such ridiculous debt with credit cards for no good reason.
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